General Community News

Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS released

Colin Watson, on behalf of the Ubuntu team, announces the release of Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products, as well as other flavors of Ubuntu with long-term support. Colin advises that 12.04.4 contains an updated kernel and X stack, and links to where the latest release can be found.

The Planet

Ubuntu GNOME: Trusty Tahr Roadmap

Ali Linx tells us the Ubuntu GNOME Brainstorming Team has been developed in order to set a plan for upcoming releases of Ubuntu GNOME. The Ubuntu GNOME project has experienced rapid growth over the last six months, and the announcement of a solid roadmap is a major step in the growth of the community.

Michael Hall: Ubuntu API Website gets an API of it’s own

Michael Hall announces the implementation of an open and public API for the Ubuntu API website. Over the last month, a Restful JSON service has been implemented and deployed which opens up opportunities for integration and mashups as well as many other exciting possibilities.

Kees Cook: compiler hardening in Ubuntu and Debian

Kees Cook explains the current state of compiler hardening in Ubuntu and Debian, including some history dating back to 2006 when Ubuntu patched the compiler. A couple of graphs are included to better illustrate trends in both Debian and Ubuntu for compiler hardening.

Stephen M. Webb: More Trusty Excitement

Stephen Webb announces that among the many exciting upcoming features of Ubuntu 14.04 will be Simple DirectMedia layer (SDL) support which has recently been ported to the Mir display server. Among other things, it will make available a slew of games via Steam when Unity 8 is released.

In a pair of articles, Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph explains five of the easiest ways to become an active Ubuntu Contributor. The first is by contributing to Ubuntu Weekly News! There are many tasks required each week from link collection to writing summaries and editing, and we encourage everyone reading this to become a contributor. In her second post, she writes about contributing to the Documentation team by doing grammar and technical review of the Desktop documentation that is included with Ubuntu.

Kubuntu Wire: Distrowatch Reviews Kubuntu Derivative Netrunner

Jonathan Riddell informs us that Distrowatch has reviewed the Kubuntu derivative Netrunner, which drops all the KDE idealism of Kubuntu and adds a range of popular software including Skype, Wine, and Steam. Jonathan is pleased to have derivative distributions made from Kubuntu, saying "anyone can make a derivative distribution without need of a licence (as long as obvious uses of the trademark are removed)."

Jono Bacon: An Exciting Future

Jono Bacon says "We are growing a world-class community and app developer eco-system, fuelled by Open Source and open collaboration. We are putting the core pieces in place and I am delighted to be working with such a wonderful team". Jono then shows us a photograph of that team.

Ubuntu Women: “What People Are Doing” Wiki Page Story Call Number Two

Svetlana Belkin has announced a Call Number Two for the “What People Are Doing” wiki, a part of the Ubuntu Women project. Ubuntu Women contributors are encouraged to submit stories about their activities and experiences--both large and small--to the “What People Are Doing” wiki page.

Canonical News

Vodafone joins Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group

Canonical announces the addition of Vodafone to the Carrier Advisory Group. Vodafone, which has approximately 411 million customers, will join national and multinational carriers in discussions that influence the development of Ubuntu for smartphones.

In The Blogosphere

Ubuntu 14.04's Nautilus updated with re-enabled Backspace key

razvi of Iloveubuntu explains some of the changes to Nautilus in the latest update, including the re-enabling of the backspace key to navigate backwards, type-ahead enabled by default, and several other changes and updates.

Some of Linux's Most Popular Games Will Run Natively On Mir

Joey-Elijah Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! explains that the Simple Direct Media layer (SDL), a cross-platform development library which is used by a growing number of high-profile games, has recently been ported to Mir. With the upcoming release of Unity 8 and Mir, many of your favorite games will now run natively under Mir.

Ubuntu Now Drafting Plans For Possible 12.04.5 LTS

Michael Larabel of Phoronix reports that Canonical's Leann Ogasawara has expressed the idea of doing an Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS release. Michael outlines her reasons for doing so, linking to an email on the Ubuntu Development mailing list, and reminding us that "The matter of the fifth point release is still up in the air but so far there appears to be interest per this mailing list thread."

Ubuntu 14.04 Looks to Improve Support For Hi-Res Screens

Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS Performance Benchmarks

Michael Larabel of Phoronix takes a look at how the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" performance has evolved with the new hardware enablement stacks of the LTS point releases now that Ubuntu 12.04.4 has been released.

Glossary of Terms

Ubuntu - Get Involved

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. http://community.ubuntu.com/contribute/